


amaryllis

by ithinkinstories



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, F/M, Mentions of Self Harm and Suicide Attempt, Tattoo Artist Sasuke, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:33:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25504513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ithinkinstories/pseuds/ithinkinstories
Summary: In which Sasuke just wants to hole up for his birthday, until he gets an unusual client.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Reader
Comments: 5
Kudos: 72





	amaryllis

**Author's Note:**

> So I got a new tattoo and was flashing it off on tumblr, where I promised a tattoo artist Sasuke story for his birthday. 
> 
> This story touches on self-harm. DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE AT ALL TRIGGERED BY THAT. I do not want to hurt anyone or for them to hurt themselves just for a stupid story. That said, I want you all to know that you’re not alone. If you need a safe space with someone who won’t judge you, you can message me!
> 
> This one is different from my others, because it is almost wholly based on my own experience. It’s deeply personal. It’s actually therapy for me, but I put it out there to share my story with others who might be struggling like I have or I currently am. I’m all about helping each other. 
> 
> Comment if you are uncomfortable with the subject matter. If enough people do that, I’ll take it down and keep it in my vault of unpublished works.
> 
> I think that’s everything, other than you can see the picture of the tattoo on my tumblr, the shinobi fairytales (no spaces), which will be tagged #amaryllistoo, and the song Amaryllis by Shinedown is huge inspiration and should be consumed alongside this. 
> 
> I don’t own Sasuke, or Naruto, so be gone, lawyers!
> 
> Oh, and happy birthday, Sasuke! 07.23

It had been an ordinary day, which was the best way Sasuke could have envisioned celebrating his birthday. He had one last client of the day, then he could go home, knock a few back, and hide in his room to watch the Misery Index. 

He was reading through the potential risks of tattoo ink that his boss wanted all the artists to review every once in a while, drowning in the smell of disinfectant he had wiped down his workstation with when his three o’ clock arrived. 

“Hey there!” Naruto greeted her jovially. “How can I help you?” 

“Hi, I have an appointment with… Sasuke, I think whoever I talked to on the phone said,” she answered meekly.

Sasuke walked out of his room to approach her. When he caught sight of her, he was surprised. He’d seen many types of people get tattoos for various reasons, but the girl he was looking at was the type he usually saw come in drunk because that was the only way she could work up the nerve to do it, getting something with her friends, which she would likely regret in the morning. 

This one was clearly sober, and a first timer. He hated working on first timers. Overall, she just seemed so… 

Pure. 

“I’m Sasuke,” he introduced himself, not holding out a hand. She didn’t either. 

“Hello.” She gave him her name, which of course, he already knew from her call for the appointment. 

“Okay, I’ll leave her to you, Sasuke,” Naruto said, coming off suggestive. Sasuke just rolled his eyes. 

“So, I looked up that flower you said you wanted, and I came up with a stencil.” He showed her the tracing paper on which he had printed the basic lineart for a simple amaryllis flower. “Is this what you were thinking?” 

“Oh, um… Almost. I would like one that has a front facing view, and one behind it from the side. Here, I have references.” 

She pulled out her phone and showed him a picture of the way she wanted it. 

“Okay. Is this the coloring you want too?” 

She shook her head. “I want it white in the middle, and do a gradient to purple on the tips of the petals. I want a little embellishment too, with a watercolor effect on the outside.” 

She showed him a few more pictures and pointed out what she meant, and he took out his own phone to take pictures of her pictures. 

“Okay, give me a bit.” 

He went into his room and started sketching. At one point, the rock music playing from the speakers in the main lobby of the parlor changed to something much more G-rated, making him roll his eyes again.

“We have a little girl coming in for her first piercings, so we turn on music that the kids prefer,” he heard Naruto explain to her. 

“That is likely the cutest thing I’ve ever heard,” she giggled. “Would you do that for me?” 

Her voice was more relaxed, which was a side effect of interacting with Naruto. It would make Sasuke’s job that much easier. 

“As soon as the kid is gone, we can turn on whatever you want,” the blonde chuckled. 

“How about some Shinedown?” 

“Oh, you’re my kind of girl!” He laughed. 

Sasuke was equally impressed. He would swear that he didn’t judge based on appearance, but he would not have thought that she was a rock type. More like pop and EDM. 

After a few more minutes, he finished the line art and went to show her. He watched as her eyes lit up. 

“That’s perfect!” 

He nodded in understanding and beckoned her back to his work room. He had her sit in the leather chair and got her set up with her right arm facing up. 

“H-how long have you been doing tattoos?” She asked him, back to the softer, higher pitched voice. 

“Since I was eighteen,” he replied smoothly. 

“Fresh out of high school?” 

He just nodded again. 

“You must be really talented then.” 

He was. So talented that he had received a few awards for it hanging on the wall behind her where she couldn’t see. 

“You must be at least twenty-five now. Seven years of licensed experience. I guess that makes me feel better,” she joked. “But you can’t make the pain go away with a hundred years of experience.” 

He faintly smirked as he lined up the stencil. So she was afraid of pain. At least one thing didn’t surprise him. He let her keep rambling until he needed her to tell him how she wanted it. 

“I’d like the front flower facing me… Shoot, I forgot a little detail. Can you write the word ‘bloom’ on it?” 

He had almost groaned, but held it back. Her request was simple enough. 

“Yes, I can do that.” 

He got the stencil printed on her skin, then grabbed a light ink roll on pen and found a spot to tuck the word in on the side of the side view flower. As he wrote it, he noticed she had some faint scarring, and it clicked for him why she was doing this, and his respect for her rose beyond that of a normal person.

“Is that okay?” He questioned when he was done. 

She smiled. “Wow. It’s better than my idea. It’s great.” 

“I can move it, if you want.”

“No, please, leave it. It looks much better that way.” She smiled sweetly at him. “You’ve got a really good eye.” 

Sasuke Uchiha didn’t blush, at least not since he was seven years old, and he did not get butterflies. He’d worked on hundreds of women who had overtly and covertly flirted with him, and he had never bat an eye. He wouldn’t start that day, he told himself. 

“So, how would you describe the pain?” She questioned, going back to being nervous. His lips twisted into a small smirk.

“It’s like getting scratched by a cat.” 

“Oh? That doesn’t sound too bad,” she assumed, optimistic. “I’ve been scratched by cats before.” 

“I’ve had scratches that hurt worse than this does,” he chuckled and got his ink gun ready. 

“Are you a cat person, or a dog person?” 

It wasn’t new that a client tried to get to know him, innocently or otherwise, but normally he wasn’t the talkative type. This time, he felt relaxed enough to actually divulge some information. 

“Cat.” 

“Do you have any?” 

He shook his head.

“By choice, or no?” 

She sure had a lot of questions, but he chalked that up to anxiety. Plenty of people did the same thing.

“I’ve just never gotten around to it.” 

“Ah, I see. I’m a cat and dog person. I have a cute dog that is so sweet. She’s eight years old.” 

He hummed in acknowledgment, and then he was on to the line art. He watched her face through his bangs and kept a read on her tension level. The moment the first line was done, she completely relaxed. 

“That’s nothing,” she sighed in relief. 

He let out a small noise of amusement, and continued on. He knew the anticipation was always the worst part of it, no matter what they told themselves to try and keep from psyching themselves out. 

“You’re doing well,” he commented when he was about halfway done with the lineart. It was not his instinct to try to soothe his clients, but after one too many complaints about his attitude, he received a lecture and Naruto had to coach him on his customer service approach. 

“Thanks, but you don’t have to say that,” she replied. 

“Actually, I do.” 

She laughed and shook her head. “Fair enough.” 

She watched him in silence until he finished, even when he went over the scars. 

“So, why are you getting this?” He asked. It was a good conversation topic, and usually got the client talking for awhile, which left them satisfied. 

“Shock value,” she said with a straight face. “I know a lot of people who are going to be stunned when they see it. I keep getting told I’m too pure, and laughed at.” 

“Is that really it?” He bit his lip, wishing he could take that back. If she felt he was being pushy, or something ended up upsetting her, he’d get another write up. 

He didn’t see as her lips curled into a soft smile. “No. I’m not doing it for the shock value at all. That will just be an entertaining side effect. I’m doing it because I almost tried to kill myself. I think you’ve noticed the scars.” 

As if on cue, he went over one, making her wince. 

“Yeah,” he admitted sheepishly, thinking that was better than not saying anything.

“Well, I want to hide the scars, and I’m such a perfectionist, I’ll never cut this area again to avoid messing it up. It also has a lot of personal symbolic value to me. It’s the first of a few I have planned,” she explained. 

“And you’re really going to shock a lot of people?” 

“Shock, piss off, make question if they know me at all,” she listed. “I come from a culture where a lot of people frown on getting tattoos or any piercings other than one in your earlobes. It’ll be interesting to see the reactions.” 

Towards the end, her voice broke a tiny bit, and he heard a fear for something new. It was something he understood so well. So agonizingly well. A fear that you’d be denied basic needs that many people never considered. The need to be accepted for the choices you make, good or bad. The need to not be judged for doing what you thought would be good for you. The need to be yourself. 

He soon moved on to color, and though she was hurting immensely, he saw the shine of resilience in her eyes. He needed to keep her talking. 

“You sound like a rebel.” 

“I am,” she joked as her hand clenched as the multi-needle tool began drawing on her with purple ink. “I’m actually acting like one now. My first act of rebellion was becoming a good girl. Long story there.” 

The way she said it made it clear she wasn’t up for sharing more.

“Got it. So what others are you thinking of getting?” 

She described a few vague ideas that she had. They kept talking, which helped the hour and a half that he worked on her go by quickly. At one point, Naruto left, leaving them alone. At that point, she introduced him to a song that had been the main inspiration for her desired image. Before he knew it, he was done, and she was fawning. 

“It’s beautiful! So much better than I could come up with on my own! Thank you!” She beamed brightly. “I could just kiss you!” 

She then blushed and looked away. “But I won’t. I’ll just tip you well.” 

He smirked and nodded. “Okay.” 

He applied a transparent sticker to it that would protect it as it worked on healing, and went over the guidelines for care for the next month. 

“For the record, you’re tougher than some bikers I’ve done,” he remarked as they went to the cash register. 

She smirked. “Not what you expected from me, huh?” 

“Not at all.” 

She grinned once more and he rang her up. As promised, she tipped him well. 

“Thanks again, Sasuke. I’ll be sure to make the appointments for the ones I get in the future with you.” 

He let her walk out without getting her number, which Naruto would scold him for. However, he knew he’d see her again. 

One day, he knew he’d really get to see her bloom. Maybe she’d help him do the same.


End file.
